Lockout lifted – emotional health restored

For starters, it’s true not everyone cares about hockey. For the last, oh, 113 days or so, the only thing a lot of people may have noticed about the labour war between National Hockey League owners and players, is that (in Canada, at least) people seemed to be talking about it a fair bit.

For others of us, the time has been surreal. One of us on the staff at the Castlegar News is a charter passenger on the Vancouver Canucks bandwagon. The staff member practiced restraint leading up to and during the lockout, hoping to keep the issue at arm’s length. It’s only now that the issue has finally been resolved and there will be top calibre hockey to contemplate, that life feels real again. A comforting sameness has been restored and with it the right to weigh in on the critical puck-related issues of the day. It’s not so much that people like this certain staff member will necessarily watch a lot of hockey… after all, real life does make its demands… but at least they can get the highlights and expert analysis from some of the finest pundits in the business.

The light switch has been flicked, bathing us in a glow that’ll hopefully put the almost four month funk behind us. Every day until late June a certain staff member will have the chance to wallow, unrestrained, in a passion that’s taken more than 40 years to cultivate.